OHMS
A reader who put a classified advertisement in the Spectator a couple of weeks ago received in due course a bulky OHMS" envelope measuring some 8in. by 6in. It contained a copy of Window, a periodical described by its advertising manager, writing on ministerial notepaper bearing the Royal Arms, as " the official magazine of the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance "; Window, be said, is read by almost all the Ministry's staff of 37,000, and he dwelt briefly on its merits as an advertising medium. There is no reason why a Government Department shouldn't run a staff magazine, but I fail to see why the tax-payer should subsidise its efforts to tout for adver- tisements. It doesn't cost nothing to dispatch a 40-page maga- zine in a stout envelope through the mails, even if you don't put any stamps on it. The Ministry itself doesn't know how many copies are thus dispatched; we just send them out promiscuously," an official told me, "to suitable advertisers." There would seem to be room for a little load-shedding in the field of administrative overheads here.
Previous page
